Personal Safety
Children Online
Online Dangers to Kids
Child Safety Tips
Adult Safety
Online Dating
Meeting People
Cyberbullies
Social Networking
Phishing
Social Engineering

Computer Safety
Hackers
Passwords
Spyware
Backdoors
Keyloggers
Viruses
Antivirus
Firewalls
Spam
Hoaxes
Scams

Internet Manners
Netiquette
Copyrights & the Internet
Bandwidth Theft

 

What is a Hacker?

Hackers, crackers, script kiddies.  It used to be that the term "hacker" was a compliment for someone who had superior computer skills.  The media grabbed hold of the name and confused hackers with "crackers".

A cracker (or criminal hacker) is someone who exploits security holes in systems and uses them to their own advantage.  A "script kiddie" is someone who isn't as skilled as a cracker and relies on scripts, or tools created by other people to do their damage.

How do they manage to hack into systems?

When a cracker or a script kiddie gets into a system it's usually because someone's left a door open for them.  They will find systems where security patches have not been installed; where antivirus software is out of date, or not running; and where firewalls are not being utilized properly.

Some crackers use software they've written or manage to obtain from other sources to gain access to systems.  They can set up a program to try out millions of combinations of passwords until the correct one is accepted.  They can also set up a "sniffer" to check data or find sensitive information.  Then they use the information they gather to penetrate deeper into the system or network they are attacking.

A third method of gaining access is called "social engineering."  Social engineering is a process of getting people to give them access to sensitive information like user names, passwords, etc.  By posing as a co-worker, official, colleague, or as someone who needs to access a computer or network, they will sweet-talk, bully, browbeat, or otherwise con a user into giving them access.

What can they do once they're in a system?

Once a cracker has gotten access to your computer there are many things they will be able to do:

• Read your files
• Use your computer to hack into other computers
• Send commands to your computer
• Cause damage to your computer or the network
• Extract financial data from your computer and sell it to interested parties

© Copyright 2004 - 2008
All Rights Reserved.
Page last updated January 26, 2008